THUREAU-DANGIN, Francois

(1872–1944)

   French archaeologist and Assyriologist. Having studied under Jules Oppert in Paris, he worked on the theory about the origins of cuneiform writing (Recherches sur l’origine de l’ecriture cuneiform, 1898) at a time when knowledge about the existence and nature of the Sumerian language was still rudimentary. He was the first to publish many important Sumerianroyal inscriptions (Les inscriptions de Sumer et Akkad, 1905; Les cylindres de Gudea, 1907). From 1902 he worked at the Louvre in Paris, becoming a keeper in 1908. He undertook excavations at Arslan Tash (1927) and Tell Ahmar (Til Barsip) (1929–1931) on behalf of the museum and continued to transcribe many of the Louvre’s Sumerian and Akkadian texts. He also wrote on an important study of cuneiform mathematics (Textes mathematiques babyloniennes, 1938).